3 weeks after last Taxol, Hair Loss

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Drained6513
Drained6513 Member Posts: 82
edited April 2017 in Managing Side Effects of Breast Cancer and Its Treatment

Hi, I managed to make it through the 12 weekly taxol treatements.  I still wonder if I did the right thing?  But, too late for that now. I say that because my BC was not lymphnode involved and it was completely taken out with the Mastectomy.  So I keep wondering was losing my hair and gaining 20 lbs. necessary.  Not to mention the toll it took on my skin.  But, it's done, so now I need to fix the damage done.

I managed to keep my hair til the 8th treatment.   My hair was still there, but it was so tangled and matted and it looked like dead fur, so after my 8th Taxol treatment, I went down to the wig shop in the Cancer Clinic and we all had a good look at my hair and decided to just shave it off.  She shaved it to a very short like crew cut and it continued to grow through the remainder of the Taxol treatments.  So after I finished my Taxol treatments, it went from what looked like a healthy crew cut to "peach fuzz". 

So, it's been three weeks yesterday since my last Taxol treatment and it's growing at the back and crown, (getting thicker there) but hardly in the top front above the forehead area and almost nothing at the sides above the ears.  I know it hasn't been long since I finished the treatments, but this has me worried.  Any feed back on this would be appreciated.  I am on Herceptin now too, for the remainder of the year. 

Thank you.

 

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  • chrissyb
    chrissyb Member Posts: 16,818
    edited April 2017

    Hi Drained, give yourself and your hair time, it will return but not as quickly as we all like. Keep the areas that are doing well short to give the areas that are not as advanced a chance to catch up.

    Please don't second guess your decision to have harsh treatment.....we make those decisions when we are most vulnerable and take the advice of the experts. As you say, it's done now and now to recover.

    Love n hugs. Chrissy

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  • Drained6513
    Drained6513 Member Posts: 82
    edited April 2017

    Thank you for your response Chrissyb.  You are so right.... it's a tough decision to do it or not.  It was low to come back, but the way the Oncologist worded it, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night thinking if I didn't do it.  He didn't give me an option of not doing it. It was ultimately my decision, but not doing it, was not on his agenda.   Everything happens so quickly from the diagnosis to the surgery, to recovery, you barely have time to comprehend the situation when it gets to the final stage of Oncology. 

    I've been taking 15,000 mgs. of biotin a day, along with my daily vitamins I've been taking for years.   I wash my hair with Nioxin and last night I used Castor oil on it.  Massaged it in, but think that may have thinned the front out.  Maybe too much massaging.  It is so degrading and humiliating to not have hair, gain all this weight and again, my skin. 

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